Bear Shooters/Our Gang Follies

Rating:
Summary: Not up to par with the usual Our Gang Standard
Review: Hal Roache's Our Gang is great and its hard to go wrong with them. The problem with this DVD is the selections. They made Our Gang Episodes for 22 years and some are great and some are not. On this DVD they seemed to just sort of thrown 3 episodes on the disc. Bear Shooters is okay but a little slow and its not my favorite period for that cast.The guy in the monkey suite reminds me more of Gilligans Islands the anything. Our Gang Follies of 1938 isn't bad but there are long singing scenes that are just boring. It gets better when Alph Alpha starts rockin out though with Buchwhet leading the band. School's Out has its moments. Farina is funny and all as is Wheezer. But its just not as good as other Our Gang episodes like Pups Is Pups.
The other problem is that each Episode has its own Menue. It kinda [stinks] to have three seperate menues when you can just have one. I wouldn't recommend starting off your Our Gang DVD collection with his DVD. Its okay if you allready have others though.

Rating:
Summary: Two early comedies plus a Little Rascals classic
Review: This DVD features three Little Rascals comedies, two from 1930 and one from 1938. Bear Shooters is one of the better Our Gang adventures from the pre-Spanky years (1930 in this case). Jackie Cooper, Chubby Chaney, and a few friends decide to go camping, and they reluctantly agree to let Mary and little Weezer come with them. Their mule-drawn wagon is something to behold, and poor Chubby keeps moving toward the back of the camper and tipping it over. A couple of hoodlums are hiding out at the kids' campsite, and one of them dresses up as a gorilla in order to scare the kids away. This proves to be a big mistake on his part, as the kids more than hold their own against him. There really are some funny parts to this video, but it seems to end abruptly with very little closure at all. School's Out from 1930 is another early comedy featuring Jackie Cooper, Chubby Chaney, a very young Stymie, and other less familiar members of the gang. The kids are worried that their teacher Miss Crabtree is going to get married and stop being their teacher. When her brother comes for a visit, they think he wants to marry her, so they tell him all kinds of terrible things about her (e.g., she has two sets of false teeth and a wooden leg) and later steal his clothes while he goes for a swim. There is also a funny scene involving an oral history quiz in class.

Our Gang Follies of 1938 is vintage Little Rascals, featuring Spanky, Alfalfa, Porky, Buckwheat, and Darla. The King of the Crooners gets top billing in Spanky's production, but unfortunately Alfalfa decides he wants to stop crooning and concentrate on singing opera. He walks out, heads off to an opera rehearsal, and lands a contract (for 20 years in the future). He comes back and shows off his contract to Spanky, who tries once again to convince him to croon for the audience chanting his name. Then Alfalfa takes a nap and dreams of his future career-when he finally makes his big opera debut, the audience boos and throws vegetables at him. Reduced to singing on the streets, he meets up with big-time club owner Spanky, band conductor Buckwheat, and singing sensation Darla, all of whom are making hundreds of thousands of dollars. When he wakes up from this bad dream, he's more than happy to give up opera and join the gang for the closing number of the Follies production. This video features a number of songs and dances from Our Gang's talented kids, and Alfalfa's performance of The Barber of Seville is a quintessential Alfalfa moment. Our Gang Follies of 1938 is one of the truly classic Little Rascals performances.

Two videos from 1930 and one from 1938 is a strange trio to put on one DVD; it's not as if these are three of the all-time best Little Rascals' comedies. Still, there is a whole hour of good, wholesome, genuine fun to be had in this particular little collection.

Rating:
Summary: Two early comedies plus a Little Rascals classic
Review: This DVD features three Little Rascals comedies, two from 1930 and one from 1938. Bear Shooters is one of the better Our Gang adventures from the pre-Spanky years (1930 in this case). Jackie Cooper, Chubby Chaney, and a few friends decide to go camping, and they reluctantly agree to let Mary and little Weezer come with them. Their mule-drawn wagon is something to behold, and poor Chubby keeps moving toward the back of the camper and tipping it over. A couple of hoodlums are hiding out at the kids' campsite, and one of them dresses up as a gorilla in order to scare the kids away. This proves to be a big mistake on his part, as the kids more than hold their own against him. There really are some funny parts to this video, but it seems to end abruptly with very little closure at all. School's Out from 1930 is another early comedy featuring Jackie Cooper, Chubby Chaney, a very young Stymie, and other less familiar members of the gang. The kids are worried that their teacher Miss Crabtree is going to get married and stop being their teacher. When her brother comes for a visit, they think he wants to marry her, so they tell him all kinds of terrible things about her (e.g., she has two sets of false teeth and a wooden leg) and later steal his clothes while he goes for a swim. There is also a funny scene involving an oral history quiz in class.

Our Gang Follies of 1938 is vintage Little Rascals, featuring Spanky, Alfalfa, Porky, Buckwheat, and Darla. The King of the Crooners gets top billing in Spanky's production, but unfortunately Alfalfa decides he wants to stop crooning and concentrate on singing opera. He walks out, heads off to an opera rehearsal, and lands a contract (for 20 years in the future). He comes back and shows off his contract to Spanky, who tries once again to convince him to croon for the audience chanting his name. Then Alfalfa takes a nap and dreams of his future career-when he finally makes his big opera debut, the audience boos and throws vegetables at him. Reduced to singing on the streets, he meets up with big-time club owner Spanky, band conductor Buckwheat, and singing sensation Darla, all of whom are making hundreds of thousands of dollars. When he wakes up from this bad dream, he's more than happy to give up opera and join the gang for the closing number of the Follies production. This video features a number of songs and dances from Our Gang's talented kids, and Alfalfa's performance of The Barber of Seville is a quintessential Alfalfa moment. Our Gang Follies of 1938 is one of the truly classic Little Rascals performances.

Two videos from 1930 and one from 1938 is a strange trio to put on one DVD; it's not as if these are three of the all-time best Little Rascals' comedies. Still, there is a whole hour of good, wholesome, genuine fun to be had in this particular little collection.